Stumbled across an article talking about the search for intelligent life in the universe just now. Must share this quote with you:

I have been an avid science fiction reader for the last 28 years. Before that, I was more of an avid Dr Suess reader. As a child, I was so excited by the possibilities of space and space travel. I saw myself living in an asteroid, or going for a vacation to Mars.

So, this recent article on Slashdot got me thinking again about "free" software. Most of the time, I only care if the software is monetarily free. But people kept talking about software that was "free as in beer".

That phrase, "free as in beer," got me wondering. What, exactly, does that mean? So I looked it up and found this:

I'm re-reading an old, short book I liked as a teenager, because it felt so close to my experience.

It is called "A Very Long Way From Anywhere Else" and it is by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Here is an excerpt from the book that I think captures a bit of what it is like to be a geek in high school, at least for me:

Holy Week

The bus drivers, smoking and laughing,
Cast long shadows in the spring morning.
A bird's liquid call, from a blossomed branch,
Finds me through the sound of traffic.

conservatives and liberals and changing the world

Liberals are people who don't have much to lose the way things are, and they have much to gain if things changed.

Conservatives are people who have a lot to lose if things changed.

Well, I've been working at my new job as a Tech Writer for a little over a month now, and I've gotten used to the taste of my foot. It seems to be in my mouth a lot.

Even though I am a "computer guy", I don't have a digital camera, MP3 player, cell phone or PDA.

Why? Because I'm waiting (impatiently) for all of those devices to be incorporated into one device that is fully tested and debugged. No more early adoption for me, unless I get a high-paying job again.

Well, I regained moderator status over the summer, but two of my moderations were metamoderated as "Unfair" (for no reason that I could tell), so I guess I'm not going to be moderating for a while now... That's a shame. I thought I was doing a good job.

Oh well. Go away for three weeks, lose Moderator status. What else could I expect?

The good news is that I had a good time, although Europe is terribly expensive for us Canadians.

Barcelona is about Gaudi, Madrid's Prado is magnificent, and Sevilla is a great city to be in on a warm Friday night.

And then there's Granada and the jaw-dropping Alhambra, and Gibraltar's monkeys...

To whom it may concern,

Thank you for your prompt response to my previous e-mail. Unfortunately, your answer, that the service your company has provided to me for free will now become a pay service, was extremely disappointing.

I'm sorry that your company has decided to take away the only feature that made your e-mail service unique, the free e-mail forwarding.